Conservative chairman denies Tories are struggling to fill London seats ahead of general election
The Conservative chairman has dismissed rumours that the party is struggling to find candidates in "difficult" London seats - but admitted he does not know where he will be standing at the general election yet.
Richard Holden told the Standard that it was "total nonsense" to say the Tories did not have enough prospective candidates for areas such as Lambeth and Lewisham.
He said they would be announced in "the coming days".
With five weeks to go before the polling day, the party still needs to fill more than 100 seats across Britain following an exodus of sitting MPs.
More than 75 quit ahead of the July 4 election, including cabinet minister Michael Gove.
Mr Holden said: "We are filling them absolutely rapidly and we will get them done over the next few days to make sure we have got a full slate of candidates."
Asked about rumours the party is struggling to fill seats in the capital, Mr Holden added: “No, that’s total nonsense.
“We’ve got over 1,000 people on our candidates list.
“We’ve got a lot of eager people who have already put their names in. We’ve had scores of applications for very difficult seats like Peckham which was selected quite recently.
“So I’m absolutely confident we have got some fantastic candidates who are going to be selected just in the coming days."
Mr Holden's Red Wall North West Durham seat, which he won in 2019, has been abolished and replaced by parts of four new constituencies.
Asked where he was standing as an MP, he said: “Don’t know yet. Good question. I'm still waiting as part of all this."
